September 24

Okay, I'm back from my blog break and feeling somewhat refreshed...........

Saturday morning I drove myself to Walmart. I figured there wouldn't be much traffic out at 7:00 on a Saturday morning and I could test out exactly how impaired I am with not being able to turn my neck much. It went okay but there were two times when I really wanted to look at my blindspot and not just rely on the mirrors. So, my wings are still clipped for a few more weeks as far as I'm concerned.

Saturday afternoon I missed a text from RayB. He wanted to come over and play cards. I didn't get the message until about 4 hours later. Doh! I'm so bad at keeping track of my phone. I think most people have their phones glued to their body. Me, I sometimes have to use the landline to call my damn phone because I forgot where I left it. And that only works if I left the sound on! I lost it once with the sound off. I couldn't find the damn thing for a few hours!

Speaking of messages, when the guys were over for Euchre last Wednesday my phone rang. I let my answering machine pick it up, of course. After it was done JT told me that I might want to change my message in view of the changes in my life. I didn't say anything but I actually sometimes simply play my message a few times in a row because it's the only recording I have of what I used to sound like before all the bad stuff happens. Granted, it makes me cry whenever I do it so maybe it would be healthier to delete it but I'm not ready to do that yet.

Sunday I slept. A LOT. I mostly only sleep in 2 hour increments all night long and after 6 hours, I tend to just get up. So I think the lack of sleep has been building up. I crawled into bed around 4:00 on Sunday and slept in 2 hour increments, for the most part, until 7:45 yesterday morning. It felt good to finally catch up on some zzzzzzzzzzz's!

Yesterday was my appointment with the nutritionist, Joanna. The highlights:
- I showed her my PEG and there was blood around it. Surprised both of us. Turns out I have a little rub spot going on. She gave me some velcro thingies so that I can position the tube to point in different directions instead of always hanging down, tucked into my pants.
- She asked what my weight goals are. I'm currently 115, I told her I would like to weigh between 125-135. She's going to ask the ENT team to bump up my prescription of Jevity. Currently I'm supposed to be eating 5.5 cans a day, I've been eating 6 cans a day, she's going to have them bump it to 7 cans a day.
- She told me that I should also start adding exercise into my regime. She knows I can't do anything too strenuous right now but suggested I start walking every day.
- She also talked to me about the low profile PEG. I have an appointment on 10/3 to get measured for one of those.
- She called down to Nurse JoAnn to see if they had any of the velcro thingies down there. I told her to ask JoAnn if they had any Telfa pads too because I was down to my last one and they're the perfect size for covering up my neck wound. So Joanna took off to pick up supplies but ended up coming back with JoAnn in tow as well. She started gabbing to Kit and I about her upcoming 2 week vacation to celebrate her 30 year anniversary with her hubby, and about her 'empty nest', and how many hours she puts in at work, and stuff about the other nurses, and.......I still can't figure this woman out. Now I'm starting to think that in her own awkward way, she's really trying hard to befriend me. She's not a bad person to get on the good side of, she did bring me a stack of like 30 Telfa pads along with 5 velcro thingies. :-)


Last night I was feeling antsy (it was probably all that sleep!) so I walked over to the family dollar store that's one block over. $60 later I came home with some more lounge pants to try out. They're still not as nice as the original ones but I can make do.

This morning I took a shower AND washed my hair while I was in there. Yep. I combined the two. Why did I feel comfortable doing this? Because part of my Walmart shopping included buying a full length mirror for the downstairs shower. I was able to watch where water and suds were running, and what the trach cover was doing, and was able to keep an eye on things in general. Love it!

Today, Kit is picking me up at 1:00 and taking me to do some Weggie's shopping because tomorrow is the big lunch day! I have 14 of my work peeps coming over to test out a couple of jambalaya and cornbread recipes that I'm trying out. Woo hoo! I also found a peanut butter and jam thumbprint cookie recipe that sounds like a lot of fun. I SO love hostessing. Toby was texting with me yesterday asking if lunch was still on for Wednesday. I said of course. He said that he's already jonesing for another Euchre lunch. I told him that they are welcome to come over any day they want for a Euchre lunch. I just ask that they give me an hour's notice.

Fun stuff: I'm counting down the days to Niagara Falls (14!). I should probably start making up a packlist of exactly what a lary is going to need to travel safely. I also finagled an invite from Kit for something called the Ronald McDonald House tag sale. It's an annual thing that's held in one of the old Kodak buildings. Kit says it's HUGE. And if you donate stuff, they give you free tickets to the preview sale on 10/15. Kit managed to score some of those. And even then, you don't just show up when the doors open for the preview sale, people actually start waiting in line for HOURS before the doors open. Say what?!? I had no idea that this was a 'thing' here in Rochester. I'm really excited to go! I need to make a list of what types of things I'm looking for. I know that an air purifier or two hits the top of the list for me. It would be great if I could pick up a couple cheap to see if they help with my lung situation at all.

 Okay, feed is done, time to go mix my power shot and then I'm going to do up a batch of cornbread ahead of time to make sure at least one of the recipes works okay. :-)